Suchergebnisse

In response to worsening social instability in China, among grassroots communities in the poorer central and western provinces in particular, the Chinese central government has made budgetary arrangements, since 2003, to increase investment at the grassroots level to improve the capacity of local governments to maintain social order. However, this action by central government has created a dilemma for local cadres: how to perform their duty to maintain social stability while also balancing a heavy fiscal burden caused in part by the receipt of insufficient additional budgetary subsidies from higher government. This paper is an account of and an analysis of how local cadres in China perform their official duties when faced with this dilemma. (JCCA/GIGA)

From the late 1990s, in response to growing unrest and crime, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) put greater emphasis on the role of the "comprehensive management of public security" (CMS) than it did on legal reform as the main means of "maintaining social stability" (weiwen). After more than a decade, however; it is apparent that CMS is highly inefficient, and its impact on weiwen is counterproductive. This paper analyses the measures, mechanisms, and logic of CMS in order to explain why it does not work as intended. By analyzing data and examples of CMS-such as expenditure on policing and paying informants-this paper shows it is precisely the elements of CMS that are contrary the principles of democracy and the rule of law that make it doomed to failure. Indeed the increasing dependence upon CMS, rather than the law, represents a step backward in legal and pοlitical reform. (Issues Stud/GIGA)

The 1998 housing reforms in Chinese cities have played a substantial role in setting social transition in motion. Not only has it produced an urban middle class of homeowners but it has also powerfully patternized collective mobilization. Fieldwork conducted in Shanghai reveals that homeowner communities living in 'commercialized apartments' (CAs) versus 'government-sold apartments' (GSAs) undertake distinct types of collective action. CA owners contentiously defend their rights and interests, whereas GSA owners remain compliant and lobby for welfare subsidies. This distinction in collective mobilizations between homeowners seems to originate in the distinct sources of homeownership. The logic of state capitalism underlies CAs and that of socialist patriarchy underlies GSAs. Analyzing a couple of mobilization episodes, the authors, by theory of contentious politics, focus on exploring the crucial mechanisms in the process of mobilization to explain why in the different settings the similar mechanisms have produced different outcomes. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

The refugee crisis that emerged in 2015 was considered to be one of the worst political and humanitarian disasters and the huge influx of immigrants that arrived in Europe caused collective concerns among the receiving countries. The general attitude towards immigrants in Germany has been positive for years but the Syrian crisis prompted the German policies to become more lenient towards the refugees. Therefore, this paper analyzes Germany's policy shift towards refugees after 2015 and examines the reasons behind the positive stance towards immigrants from the existing literature. The paper discusses the role of different factors ranging from economic, foreign policy considerations, ideological concerns to humanitarian values. In addition, this paper highlights the gaps in the literature and proposes directions for future research to comprehend German policies on immigrants. The research concludes with the findings that humanitarian values and past experiences have played a crucial role in shaping Germany's refugee policy during the European refugee crisis.